French post office signs service agreement with mail-order companies

The French post office (La Poste) announced on Thursday that it has signed a draft agreement with the French federation of mail-order retailers (FEVAD) concerning service quality. This unprecedented deal, which is seen as a response to the deregulation of the European postal market, guarantees that 95 per cent of FEVAD companies’ advertising mail-shots will be delivered within seven working days. It is intended to improve service to the mail-order sector, which lost hundreds of millions of francs’ worth of business in 1995 as a result of the French postal strikes in November and December of that year.
Accordingly, if La Poste fails to deliver these FEVAD articles in time, it will refund par of the mailing expenses of the mail-order company in question. This ranges from a 30 per cent refund for a delay of between three and six days, to 100 per cent if delivery is more than nine days late.